As an ex-Vogue editor reveals models ate tissues to be thin, Lauren Burnett tells of her years of pills and diuretic tea

Drugs, lots of them, every day,” Lauren Burnett says.

“Coke, speed, methamphetamine. Neat alcohol. Laxative tea, diet pills, entire afternoons spent in the gym.” She eats a polenta chip. “I did that for six years. It was the worst time of my life.”

In a trendy Sydney restaurant Lauren, 22, is eating a Caesar salad and chips and describing how, as a successful teenage model, she used to keep her body skinny enough to meet the exacting requirements of the fashion mavens who ruled her life.

From 2004 to 2010, when she was aged 13 to 19, Lauren appeared regularly